2014 Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame: UNC football coach featured speaker as 4 more to be inducted

By Richard Walker

Published: Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 09:16 AM.

GASTONIA – University of North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora will be the featured speaker and four more former local athletic standouts will be inducted into the Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame during the 2014 ceremony on May 19 at the Gastonia Conference Center.

Tickets will be available later this month for the 26th annual event where Gastonia’s Jerry Carpenter, Frank Tate and Rufus Crawford and Dallas’ Nancy Scoggins-Janas will be inducted.

Fedora, who is preparing for his third season with the Tar Heels, has guided UNC to a division title and a bowl victory, respectively, in his first two seasons as head coach.

Fedora’s 2012 team went 8-4 overall and 5-3 in the Coastal Division – shared the divisional title – but was ineligible for the ACC championship game or a postseason bowl game due to NCAA punishment of the previous coaching staff.

Last season, the Tar Heels won six of their last seven games, including a 39-17 win over Cincinnati in Charlotte’s Belk Bowl in December. Former North Gaston standout A.J. Blue and former Ashbrook standout Norkeithus Otis have been among UNC’s top players in Fedora’s first two seasons.

Fedora came to Chapel Hill after 26 seasons coaching college and high school football, including the previous four years as head coach at Southern Mississippi. Fedora’s final season of 2011 saw the Golden Eagles go 12-2, win the Conference USA and Hawaii Bowl titles with former Hunter Huss standout Lamar Holmes on the roster; Holmes is preparing for his third season with as an offensive lineman with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

The 2014 induction class features a playing and coaching standout, two professional football pioneers and a high school and college women’s basketball standout.

Carpenter, a 1956 graduate of old Ashley High, was a football and baseball standout in high school and later played football at Wingate Junior College, East Carolina College and for local semipro teams. At Ashley, he quarterbacked the Green Wave to a 9-1-1 record as a senior in 1955 and played catcher for the 1954 state championship baseball team.

As a coach, Carpenter guided Gastonia’s old Wray junior high teams before coaching football, boys basketball and baseball at Ashbrook. He is the only Gazette coach of the year in football, boys basketball and baseball and had a 193-155-9 overall head coaching record highlighted by Ashbrook’s 1974 N.C. 4A football championship and its 1985 N.C. 4A baseball runner-up finish.

Tate, a 1971 Ashbrook High graduate, was a two-sport standout for the Green Wave before starring in football at North Carolina Central and later setting county NFL history. The Gazette’s 1970 lineman of the year in Ashbrook’s first season after the consolidation of the old Ashley and Holbrook high schools, Tate enjoyed more success on the basketball court as his teams went 33-1 against league opponents in three seasons, advanced to the N.C. 4A state tournament each year and ended his career with a third-place finish in the 1971 tournament.

At North Carolina Central, Tate was a two-time All-CIAA linebacker who was inducted into the Eagles’ Hall of Fame in 1992. After college, Tate signed a free agent contract with the Oakland Raiders in 1975. After being released by the Raiders following the preseason, Tate signed with the San Diego Chargers and played four games that season – becoming the county’s first-ever NFL player.

Crawford, a 1974 Hunter Huss High graduate, was an All-Gazette running back in 1973 and a high jump champion for the Huskies before becoming an All-CIAA running back and return specialist at Virginia State University and later a member of the Trojans’ athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.

Following college, Crawford became Huss’ first-ever NFL player after signing a free agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks in 1978 and playing in 16 games. Crawford then signed with the Hamilton of the Canadian Football League where he helped the Tiger-Cats to three Eastern Division titles and three Grey Cups during his seven-year career. Crawford racked up more than 6,000 career all-purpose yards and more than 20 touchdowns in the CFL, highlighted by a 1984 season in which he was runner-up for the Schenley Award given the CFL’s most outstanding player.

Scoggins-Janas, a 1977 North Gaston High graduate, was a two-time All-Gazette basketball selection and 1977 Gazette player of the year. In her final two years for the Wildcats, the team went 55-3 and was 1976 runner-up and 1977 champion of the old Western N.C. Activities Association. She also helped the school’s softball team to a WNCHSAA runner-up finish in the fall of 1976.

After North Gaston, she played basketball at Pfeiffer for four years and remains the Lady Falcons’ record-holder in single-season (605) and career (1,837) scoring. In 1991, she was inducted into that school’s sports Hall of Fame.

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22

GASTONIA – University of North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora will be the featured speaker and four more former local athletic standouts will be inducted into the Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame during the 2014 ceremony on May 19 at the Gastonia Conference Center.

Tickets will be available later this month for the 26th annual event where Gastonia’s Jerry Carpenter, Frank Tate and Rufus Crawford and Dallas’ Nancy Scoggins-Janas will be inducted.

Fedora, who is preparing for his third season with the Tar Heels, has guided UNC to a division title and a bowl victory, respectively, in his first two seasons as head coach.

Fedora’s 2012 team went 8-4 overall and 5-3 in the Coastal Division – shared the divisional title – but was ineligible for the ACC championship game or a postseason bowl game due to NCAA punishment of the previous coaching staff.

Last season, the Tar Heels won six of their last seven games, including a 39-17 win over Cincinnati in Charlotte’s Belk Bowl in December. Former North Gaston standout A.J. Blue and former Ashbrook standout Norkeithus Otis have been among UNC’s top players in Fedora’s first two seasons.

Fedora came to Chapel Hill after 26 seasons coaching college and high school football, including the previous four years as head coach at Southern Mississippi. Fedora’s final season of 2011 saw the Golden Eagles go 12-2, win the Conference USA and Hawaii Bowl titles with former Hunter Huss standout Lamar Holmes on the roster; Holmes is preparing for his third season with as an offensive lineman with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

The 2014 induction class features a playing and coaching standout, two professional football pioneers and a high school and college women’s basketball standout.

Carpenter, a 1956 graduate of old Ashley High, was a football and baseball standout in high school and later played football at Wingate Junior College, East Carolina College and for local semipro teams. At Ashley, he quarterbacked the Green Wave to a 9-1-1 record as a senior in 1955 and played catcher for the 1954 state championship baseball team.

As a coach, Carpenter guided Gastonia’s old Wray junior high teams before coaching football, boys basketball and baseball at Ashbrook. He is the only Gazette coach of the year in football, boys basketball and baseball and had a 193-155-9 overall head coaching record highlighted by Ashbrook’s 1974 N.C. 4A football championship and its 1985 N.C. 4A baseball runner-up finish.

Tate, a 1971 Ashbrook High graduate, was a two-sport standout for the Green Wave before starring in football at North Carolina Central and later setting county NFL history. The Gazette’s 1970 lineman of the year in Ashbrook’s first season after the consolidation of the old Ashley and Holbrook high schools, Tate enjoyed more success on the basketball court as his teams went 33-1 against league opponents in three seasons, advanced to the N.C. 4A state tournament each year and ended his career with a third-place finish in the 1971 tournament.

At North Carolina Central, Tate was a two-time All-CIAA linebacker who was inducted into the Eagles’ Hall of Fame in 1992. After college, Tate signed a free agent contract with the Oakland Raiders in 1975. After being released by the Raiders following the preseason, Tate signed with the San Diego Chargers and played four games that season – becoming the county’s first-ever NFL player.

Crawford, a 1974 Hunter Huss High graduate, was an All-Gazette running back in 1973 and a high jump champion for the Huskies before becoming an All-CIAA running back and return specialist at Virginia State University and later a member of the Trojans’ athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.

Following college, Crawford became Huss’ first-ever NFL player after signing a free agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks in 1978 and playing in 16 games. Crawford then signed with the Hamilton of the Canadian Football League where he helped the Tiger-Cats to three Eastern Division titles and three Grey Cups during his seven-year career. Crawford racked up more than 6,000 career all-purpose yards and more than 20 touchdowns in the CFL, highlighted by a 1984 season in which he was runner-up for the Schenley Award given the CFL’s most outstanding player.

Scoggins-Janas, a 1977 North Gaston High graduate, was a two-time All-Gazette basketball selection and 1977 Gazette player of the year. In her final two years for the Wildcats, the team went 55-3 and was 1976 runner-up and 1977 champion of the old Western N.C. Activities Association. She also helped the school’s softball team to a WNCHSAA runner-up finish in the fall of 1976.

After North Gaston, she played basketball at Pfeiffer for four years and remains the Lady Falcons’ record-holder in single-season (605) and career (1,837) scoring. In 1991, she was inducted into that school’s sports Hall of Fame.

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22